Link here.Zogby Polling Seeks Damage Control After Election Day Flub
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 09, 2004
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Following an Election Day prediction that Democratic candidate John Kerry would win more than 300 electoral votes and the presidency, one of America's most well known polling firms continued the job Wednesday of explaining its flawed projection.
Shawnta Watson Walcott, communications director for Zogby International, joined a group of liberal Democrats at a faux congressional hearing focused on whether fraud influenced the Nov. 2 outcome.
"... it has become increasingly clear that this election has produced unprecedented levels of suspicion regarding its outcome, and we join this panel discussion in an attempt to find a resolution to these issues," said Walcott, who represented the firm's president and long time political pollster John Zogby at the forum sponsored by Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee.
On Election Day, Zogby predicted that Kerry would win 311 electoral votes. For much of that afternoon, he also rated the state of Virginia as too close to call. Not only did President Bush end up winning Virginia by 9 percentage points over Kerry, he won 286 electoral votes, over 3.3 million popular vote more than Kerry and, of course, re-election.
But with a Rayburn House Office Building meeting room as the backdrop, Judiciary Committee Democrats, liberal special interest groups and individuals like Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder Jesse Jackson Wednesday alleged that the election had been marred by fraud and malfunctioning voting machines.
Walcott told the group assembled that Zogby International had questions of its own pertaining to the election.
"We have received thousands of letters and phone calls regarding irregularities - many of which center on early exit polling results that were uncharacteristically inaccurate in several battleground states; questionable practices at polling stations that may have resulted in votes not being counted accurately; and in Ohio, as with other swing states, the automated Diebolt machines were particularly disturbing because they offered no voting receipts" she said.
"It is with this intention that we recommend that a blue ribbon bipartisan panel be developed to investigate the allegations discussed here today ..." Walcott added.
Later, another noted political observer questioned the wisdom of Walcott attending the partisan event at the Rayburn Office Building.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Zogby polling may have crossed a line in its call for an investigation of the election results.
"It's highly unusual for a pollster who claims not to be partisan to issue such a call [for an investigation]," Sabato told CNSNews.com .
When asked whether he thought Zogby might be trying to spread the idea of voter fraud to explain his mistaken pre-election prediction, Sabato responded, "I can't comment on [Zogby's] motives. I have no idea. But I can tell you this. This whole [election fraud] hullabaloo is malarky."
In explaining her presence at Wednesday's meeting, Walcott said she was offering "recommendations that may help restore the dignity and public confidence in the democratic process -- a process that is clearly worth protecting."
But Sabato said such criticism of the election process were without merit.
"There is absolutely no chance that the election was stolen, and there is absolutely no chance that the election results will be reversed in Ohio -- regardless of how many investigations are done," Sabato added.
Democrats have centered most of their allegations of election mismanagement or wrongdoing on Ohio, even though President Bush beat Kerry in the state by more than 135,000 votes.
Sabato also ridiculed the assertion by Zogby International that its exit polls were "uncharacteristically inaccurate" in 2004. "They have been characteristically inaccurate in 2000, 2002, 2004 -- wrong three times in a row and highly inaccurate," Sabato said.
"So talking about cynicism, the cynicism is being generated by these wild claims. Was it a perfect election? No. Has there ever been a perfect election in the history of the world? No," Sabato concluded.
